Bipolar plates are an integral component for enhancing the performance of the fuel cell stack and depending on the application and the customer’s specification, Dana offers both metallic and composite plates.

 

“The global fuel-cell market is gaining momentum as the mobility industry transitions to zero-emission vehicles,” said Antonio Valencia, president of Dana Power Technologies. “For more than two decades, Dana has been leveraging its engineering expertise to deliver award-winning technology that is critical to the fuel cell stack. Our global presence and manufacturing prowess enable our customers to meet their emission, quality, reliability, and cost requirements.”

 

Manufactured using the company’s patented integrated sealing technology and in-line conductive coating, Dana’s ultra-thin metallic bipolar plates deliver superior power density, reliability, and durability and can cut fuel cell stack costs by up to 10 percent. These metallic plates were named a finalist for the 2020 Automotive News PACE Awards and were recognized by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) with a 2019 FCH Award in the Best Success Story category as part of the INSPIRE Project.  Dana is one of ten partners in the INSPIRE project, which develops innovative stack components for fuel cells with high power densities.

 

Dana’s composite bipolar plate assemblies provide a reliable, high-performing, and cost-effective solution for fuel cell stacks.  They deliver improved performance and manufacturability, aiding original-equipment manufacturers in realizing commercialization of fuel cell-powered mobility.

TecAlliance, known as an international leader and trusted source in data, processes, and integrated solutions for the automotive aftermarket, publishes the TecDoc Catalog, a world-leading, automotive aftermarket catalog. TecDoc offers customers an easy way to access a list of spare parts available for more than 110,000 vehicle types. More than 500 data suppliers (manufacturers of spare parts for the automotive industry) contribute articles and linkage data to the digital catalog, including Dana.

To ensure the highest quality data is being delivered to its customers, TecAlliance evaluates suppliers’ comprehensive parts information in its TecDoc Catalog on a quarterly basis. Evaluations examine seven key performance indicators (KPIs), with suppliers needing to fulfill 99 percent or higher of each KPI to be considered a certified data supplier. KPIs include things like whether the text modules have been translated into six core languages and the rate of incorrect data being reported, among others. With a vested interest in ensuring high quality data and trust in its products, Victor Reinz has continued to exceed expectations by fulfilling 100 percent of TecAlliance’s CDS criteria.

Because Victor Reinz scores so high against TecAlliance’s KPIs, customers can be assured Dana’s information is accurate, comprehensive, and easily searchable. Victor Reinz credits much of its continued leading supplier position to growing and aligning its quality part data/information with TecAlliance’s years ago.

In fact, Victor Reinz has been a TecAlliance member since its founding, also participating as a shareholder. More than 16,000 Victor Reinz parts are included in the TecDoc Catalog.

The new development is focused on high-tolerance accuracy and ensures the components perfectly enclose the exhaust manifold and turbocharger.

Dana supplies the six components individually, except the backplate, which is already connected to the exhaust manifold gasket. Jaguar assembles the package in a defined installation order. The heat shields can also be disassembled individually if maintenance is necessary.

For production, Dana uses a three-in-one tool, which presses the plates for three different heat shields with a single stroke.

Service, trust, references and competitiveness

“Managing heat and noise remain two very important areas for our customers as they look to deliver the highest quality driving experience,” explains Christian Dahl, project manager original equipment sales. “Dana is able to offer custom-designed thermal acoustical shielding solutions that are seamlessly integrated into compact spaces while taking full advantage of our advanced manufacturing capabilities to deliver it at competitive prices.”

Then as now
Since 1947, the company’s headquarters has been located in Neu-Ulm, Germany and has developed steadily. With more than 1,300 employees, REINZ-Dichtungs-GmbH is a subsidiary of Dana Incorporated – a global company with 36,000 employees on six contents. It is now one of the largest and best-known employers in the region. The brand name Victor Reinz^® stands for innovative gasket technologies with the highest quality standards, then and now.

Innovations for the future
Almost all well-known brands and models of car manufacturers worldwide are equipped with professional Victor Reinz sealing solutions for the engine and exhaust system.

Since the beginning of the development of metallic bipolar plates in 2001, the company has been an innovative pioneer in the field of fuel cell technology and won the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Award in the category "Best Success Story" with its product development in 2019. It was also recognized as a 2020 finalist for the prestigious Automotive News PACE Awards.

The wide range of innovative Victor Reinz^® sealing products is not only favored by the European automotive industry, but also lead the market in many industrial product areas.

"We connect the proud tradition of our now 100-year-old success story to the people and their experiences that have left their mark on the company over this long period. This is what we are building on with our innovative and future-compliant products, together for and with our customers”, declares the Dana Neu-Ulm Managing Director Frank Bader, who has formed the management duo together with Olivier Lassurguère, since 2019.

"Dana Incorporated has the aim of being one of the world's leading automotive suppliers for another 100 years", states Olivier Lassurguère. "Our vision is to collaborate with the automobile manufacturers to shape the engine of the future."

The FCH Award recognizes outstanding projects and developments in the field of fuel cells that reduce production costs, speed up manufacturing, develop new materials, increase performance, and demonstrate the reliability of hydrogen energy.

Dana is one of nine partners in the INSPIRE project, which develops innovative stack components for fuel cells with high power densities. One of the project goals was to develop a cost-effective and competitive bipolar plate.  The results of the INSPIRE project demonstrate Dana’s ability to deliver a market-ready metallic bipolar plate that will be important for the growth of the fuel-cell market.

The metallic bipolar plate developed by Dana is a key enabling component for the INSPIRE project’s stack, which delivers an industry-leading power density of 5.7 kilowatts per liter and over 1.5 W/cm², exceeding the group’s original target and surpassing the currently available fuel cell cars, which have a power density of approximately 3 to 4 kilowatts per liter.

The highly durable bipolar plate from Dana is designed to meet the extreme demands for sealing, coating, and absolute precision of the extra-fine embossing structures. 

"Receiving the 2019 FCH Award  is an excellent achievement for Dana and the INSPIRE team and recognizes the significant accomplishments of the project to deliver a highly capable and more cost-effective fuel-cell stack," said Steven Monte,  vice president of advanced technologies and strategic planning for Dana’s Power Technologies group.  "Both the function of the bipolar plate and the resulting power density of 1.5 W/cm² and 5.7 kW/l are critically important for advancing fuel cell powertrains in the market."

Dana is one of the pioneers in the research and development of fuel cell technology. Original equipment manufacturers around the world are already using Dana’s bipolar plates in fuel-cell technology as an energy source or range extender in mobile applications.

Dana’s metallic bi-polar plates were recently named a finalist for the 2020 Automotive News PACE Awards. The winners are expected to be announced in March.

It is the AFM 5 gasket material, which has already proven itself in numerous races and is used especially for this purpose.  The tests with the new 2019 model were also successful. AFM 5 is manufactured in the Neu-Ulm plant of Dana Incorporated, REINZ-Dichtungs-GmbH. The sealing material is metal-reinforced and designed to withstand high heat and pressure.  AFM 5 is therefore perfectly suited for use in turbochargers and exhaust systems.

The Formula Student is an international design competition with 14 competitions worldwide and more than 800 teams competing against each other in their self-constructed racing cars.  The teams, including the “KA-RaceIng”-Team, consist exclusively of students.

The Formula Student racing series are about overall performance.  In five dynamic and three static disciplines the teams have to prove themselves in front of an experienced jury. The race performance, an in-depth understanding of the theory and detailed financial planning play an important role.

In 2018, Dana invested a total of 13.5 million euros to expand production of cylinder-head gaskets and transmission valve body separator plates.  This investment created 60 new jobs.  With the new, fully automated coating and assembly lines, as well as the new press line, Dana is creating additional capacities for cylinder-head gaskets for use in internal combustion engines.

“We are providing additional resources and production capacities to optimally serve our customers' increased market share and continuous sales growth in the engine production segment,” said Stefan Genelin, head of automotive products for Dana Power Technologies, Neu-Ulm site.  “Thanks to the new production lines, we can produce a cylinder-head gasket every 1.86 seconds”.

The new coating line, equipped with state-of-the-art technology, punches the gasket blanks directly from the coil.  They are then washed, pre-treated, primed, coated, dried, and vulcanized – all fully automatic – with the highest quality.  From these semi-finished products, the sealing layers for the proven Victor Reinz^® multi-layer steel cylinder-head gaskets are punched out, embossed, and stacked.  Finally, the gaskets are riveted on the new assembly line.  The latest camera technology is used for automatic quality control.

The new production lines supplement current operations and expand production capacity by increasing the level of automation, including improved product quality and competitiveness.

In addition to investments in the production of cylinder-head gaskets, a new washing area and cleanroom were built for the manufacture of transmission plates for automatic and dual-clutch transmissions.

The new operations can also be used in the future to manufacture components for battery-powered or fuel cell-powered electric vehicles.